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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29340942">Take A Break</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ticklishanimeboysaremylife/pseuds/Ticklishanimeboysaremylife'>Ticklishanimeboysaremylife</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, M/M, Pining, Tickle Games, Tickle fic, Tickling, tickle challenge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:36:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,715</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29340942</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ticklishanimeboysaremylife/pseuds/Ticklishanimeboysaremylife</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico needs to take a break, but is being stubborn as usual. Luckily, Percy knows just how to handle obstinate demigods.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Take A Break</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Hya!”</p><p>Nico lunged forward suddenly, his sword clashing with Percy’s. He grunted, attempting to untangle the block, but Percy was too quick for that. He brought their swords up suddenly, flinging the weapon from his hands. Emptyhanded, Nico dodged around Percy’s sides, attempting to wrestle the sword from him physically instead. Percy kicked his leg out from under him, causing the other to stumble and fall backwards onto the grassy field. Before Nico could regain his bearings he found a sword brandished neatly at his throat.</p><p>Nico swallowed, a hearty flush coloring his cheeks from the exercise. “Okay. You win.”</p><p>“Ah, you’ll get it next time. It just takes practice.” Percy lowered the sword, offering him a hand up. As Nico grasped his hand however, he jerked him forward suddenly and Percy yelped as he fell to the ground beside him.</p><p>“What were you saying?” Nico teased. Percy threw a handful of grass in his face, prompting the other to duck with an amused chuckle.</p><p>When Percy had first approached Nico about combat lessons, he had refused him. He figured he was already decent enough with a sword, and he had fought off enough gods and monsters to be fairly self-sufficient. Eventually though, after a humbling conversation with Hazel, he ended up taking him up on it.</p><p>He had quickly realized that it wasn’t just swordsmanship that Percy was offering to teach either, and soon Nico was learning different hand-to-hand combat maneuvers and sparring at least once a week with the other. It became almost a challenge for the two, each trying to come up with new strategies to best the other. It was fun. For the first time in a long while, Nico was genuinely enjoying himself.</p><p>As with most things though, he had thrown himself completely into it and found that he was quickly overextending himself with each session. Percy watched as Nico flopped down on the grass, throwing one arm across his face. He could see the rise and fall of his chest as the boy attempted to regain his breath and took in the other’s obviously sore features. </p><p>“Exhausted yet?” Percy questioned, raising an eyebrow. “You want to take a break?”</p><p>“Not on your life,” Nico mumbled through the skin of his arm. “I could do this forever.”</p><p>“Right…” Percy crossed his arms in skeptical disbelief. There was no way Nico could go another round, especially training as hard as he had been. Still, he knew that simply saying that to the boy would have the exact opposite effect. He had to make him come to the conclusion himself. As he watched him, splayed out and vulnerable on the grass, an idea on how to do just that slowly started to form in Percy’s mind.</p><p>“Another round, huh?” Percy repeated, leaning forward on one knee to smirk at the boy. “In that case, maybe we should take it up a notch. A new level of training, something you’ve never experienced before.”</p><p>A thrill of excitement and worry trilled through Nico’s spine at the words and he slowly removed his arm to give Percy a curious look. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”</p><p>“It’s a surprise.” At Nico’s unimpressed glare, he quickly added, “It only works if you don’t know about it in advance. Trust me.”</p><p>“Trust you?” Nico scoffed, but he didn’t resist as Percy shifted to face him, grabbing both of his legs in an armlock. Experimentally, he tugged at his legs but found them to be truly stuck. Due to his playful and silly nature, Nico often forgot how strong Percy genuinely was after years of training. There was no way he was getting out of this.</p><p>Noticing the worried look on his face, Percy asked, “Nervous?”</p><p>Nico flushed, averting his gaze. It didn’t help that Percy’s physical proximity was doing strange things to his heart, either. “No, of course not. Bring it on.”</p><p>“Okay. Just remember that you asked for this.”</p><p>Percy’s other hand was obscured from Nico’s vision, so he was only able to watch in confusion as Percy readied his attack. One finger, quick and sudden, slid down the length of his left sole, and Nico was unable to stop his leg from jerking back at the touch.</p><p>“W-What the hell?” Nico asked uncertainly, but soon the finger continued, tracing soft and lazy spirals all over his soles. “P-Pfft, h-hey! Jahackson!”</p><p>“Hmm?” Percy shot him back an innocent glance. “What’s wrong? I thought you said you could handle it?”</p><p>“Y-Yeah, combat t-training,” Nico gritted out, stuttering over his words as he tried to hold back the laughter quickly bubbling up in his throat. “Nohot t—” he broke off suddenly, a blush spreading across his cheeks like wildfire. He cleared his throat, trying again. “Not tickling.”</p><p>“This is combat training. A form of it anyway.”</p><p>“T-Thihis isn’t trahaining! This is stuhupid!” A reluctant grin had begun to form across his features and Nico quickly covered it with one hand, using the other to prop himself up.</p><p>“It’s endurance training,” Percy corrected, changing tactics and scribbling all five fingers over his soles now. Nico choked over a laugh, attempting to cover it up as a cough. “You said you were up for the challenge. Maybe I was wrong though.” As he spoke, he spidered blunt nails all over the ball of his foot, causing Nico to squeak and fall back onto the grass, covering his face with both hands. “What do you think? Can the dark, ferocious ghost king not handle a couple of tickles?”</p><p>Nico tugged frantically at his legs, giggles spilling unwarranted from his lips. “Ihihihi cahahahan hahahahandle ahahanything—eep! Nohohoho, stahahahap!”</p><p>Percy scratched at the sensitive undersides of his toes, prompting the latter to go into a squirming, babbling fit. “How did I not know you were this ticklish? It’s adorable.”</p><p>“Nohohoho ihihit’s nahahahat!” Nico screeched with a violent blush, curling his toes uselessly. “Ahahahahand I’m nahahahat tihihihicklish!”</p><p>“No? Then why are you laughing?”</p><p>“B-Behehecause… behehehecause… behehehecause shuhuhuhut uhuhuhup!”</p><p>“I’ve got to be honest, that’s not a very convincing argument, Nico.”</p><p>Percy grinned, and before Nico knew what was happening Percy was sitting on top of his legs, effectively holding him still. With both hands free now, he quickly set to work raking nails up both feet and sending Nico into a new level of hysteria.</p><p>“Wahahahait nohohoho, hohohold ohohon ahahaha sehehecond!” Nico burst into a round of squeaky giggles, attempting to both hold himself up and cover his mouth to stop the flow of laughter from escaping, as well as somehow sit up and pry Percy off of him. “Dohohon’t!”</p><p>“You know how to make this all stop,” Percy reminded him. “All you have to do is admit that you need to rest and I’ll let you go.”</p><p>“Ihihihihihi dohohon’t neheheheed tohoho—gahahahaha, ohohoho gohohods!”</p><p>Deciding that it appeared to be his most sensitive spot, Percy had moved his focus back to his toes. Nico squeaked, launching forward to try to pry Percy off of him. Eventually, he settled on merely wrapping his arms around the other for support, burying his face in the back of his t-shirt. “A-Ahahahaha, Pehehehercy!”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“Ihihihihit tihihihickles!”</p><p>“I am aware of that,” Percy agreed, biting his lip to hold back a smile at the adorable nature of his protests. “Your point?”</p><p>“Stahahahahap!”</p><p>“Are you going to take a break from training?”</p><p>“I dohohon’t neheheheed a breheheak!”</p><p>“Then no. I wonder what would happen if I did this?” Experimentally, Percy held back his toes with one hand, using the other to scratch the taut, exposed skin. The muffled shriek into his t-shirt said all Percy needed to know on how effective that particular method was.</p><p>Nico himself was just as surprised as Percy was at his apparent sensitivity. The only person who had ever tickled him before was Bianca, and after that everyone he knew was too afraid of the consequences to try. Now though, he found himself grateful that no one had, or he never would have been able to save face around any of his peers. Electric shocks seemed to shoot up his legs as Percy trailed devastating fingers over his soles in a manner that was far too ticklish to be fair.</p><p>Yet even as he protested and even as his composure trembled, he found that he was almost having fun. There was something nice about being able to freely laugh and squirm under someone else’s touch and not worry about being some tough, dark war hero.</p><p>That didn’t mean it didn’t tickle like hell though.</p><p>“I hahahahahate yohohou sohohohoho muhuhuch!” Nico giggled, legs jerking in their attempts to free themselves. “Ahahahah, ehehe, stahahahap!”</p><p>“Are you going to rest?”</p><p>“Thihihihis ihihihis stuhuhuhupid!”</p><p>“Are you?”</p><p>Percy scratched the spot right under his middle toe that had him howling, and suddenly Nico found he couldn’t take it anymore, even if his pride suffered. “Fihihihine, fihihihihine, I’ll rehehest! Juhuhuhust stahahahap!”</p><p>Finally, Percy let up and allowed him to breathe. For a couple of moments Nico stayed like that, fingers gripped tight around his t-shirt as he hugged the other from behind. He knew intellectually that he should let go of him. However, another, larger part of his brain wanted to stay curled up against him, soaking in the other’s body heat.</p><p>Eventually, Percy coughed, a faint flush tinging the ends of his ears. “Um, Nico? Are you okay?”</p><p>Nico’s eyes snapped open and he shoved Percy off him in a sudden, fluid motion, rolling over into a standing position. He brushed grass off himself, blaming the heat on his face from the tickling. “Uh, I’m going to go take that rest now. Thanks for… thanks for the training.”</p><p>“Oh.” Percy blinked at him, startled. “You’re welcome, I guess?”</p><p>Nico whirled around, picking up his sword and starting to head back down the hill towards the cabins. He paused after a second, turning back to glare at him. “Oh, and Percy? If you ever tickle me again I’ll decapitate you, got it?”</p><p>Percy opened his mouth to respond, but before he could Nico was off again.</p><p>Needless to say, Percy did tickle him again and though the other complained vehemently, he found that he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he would. </p><p>Not that he would ever tell Percy that.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For the ask by @ticklish-sidekick who requested a Percy and Nico fic. <br/>You can find me at my tumblr: https://happyandticklish.tumblr.com/</p></blockquote></div></div>
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